DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4668#0139
IV.] The Cycle of the Seasons. 121
the time of the new moon nearest the summer
solstice; the season of winter ("Pir"), and
the season of heat ("Semou") answering
more or less to our spring. Hence in every
year the period of three hundred and sixty
days was divided either into three equal
seasons, each containing twelve decades of
days, or into twelve equal months, each
containing three decades of days; while the
sacred interval bore the same ratio to that
whole period (one-sixtieth) as a minute (of
circular arc) bears to a degree ; and the excess
quarter of a day upon which the whole
arrangement depended bore the same ratio to
the sacred interval (one twenty-fourth) as the
solar hour to the complete day. It is not
unworthy of remark also, that whereas in
the order of the seasons, as corrected by Dr.
Brugsch, their hieroglyphs have no corre-
spondence with the physical year (as Cham-
pollion believed to be the case), and appear
therefore to be arbitrary and unmeaning; yet
the time of the new moon nearest the summer
solstice; the season of winter ("Pir"), and
the season of heat ("Semou") answering
more or less to our spring. Hence in every
year the period of three hundred and sixty
days was divided either into three equal
seasons, each containing twelve decades of
days, or into twelve equal months, each
containing three decades of days; while the
sacred interval bore the same ratio to that
whole period (one-sixtieth) as a minute (of
circular arc) bears to a degree ; and the excess
quarter of a day upon which the whole
arrangement depended bore the same ratio to
the sacred interval (one twenty-fourth) as the
solar hour to the complete day. It is not
unworthy of remark also, that whereas in
the order of the seasons, as corrected by Dr.
Brugsch, their hieroglyphs have no corre-
spondence with the physical year (as Cham-
pollion believed to be the case), and appear
therefore to be arbitrary and unmeaning; yet